The present invention relates, in general, to timer picture recording by a picture recording apparatus (in the present invention, a video tape recorder (VTR) will hereinafter be described as an example of the picture recording apparatus), and more particularly to the picture recording control of a television receiver (hereinafter, referred to as "a television" for short, when applicable) which has a function of commanding the VTR to record a scene on a video tape so that in accordance with the picture recording command issued from the television, the VTR records automatically a scene on a video tape.
Heretofore, in the case where a desired channel of a television was subjected to the timer picture recording by a VTR, on the VTR side, the timer picture recording was performed on the basis of the picture recording reserve. As for the public known example relating thereto, there is JP-A-1-212096.
In the above-mentioned prior art, for example, in the case where a desired broadcasting via satellite (hereinafter, referred to as "a BS" for short, when applicable) channel was intended to be subjected to the picture recording by a VTR which did not contain a BS tuner, it was necessary that the video and sound signals, relating to,the desired BS channel, output from the television containing a BS tuner were connected to an external input terminal of the VTR so that the timer picture recording was performed on the VTR side. As for the method in this case, there are known (1) a method in which the desired channel is fixed so that the picture recording channel is not changed by mistake by the operation for selecting a television broadcast (i.e., a broadcasting TV station), and under this condition, the picture recording is performed by the VTR, (2) a method in which the television is provided with the same function of reserving a program as that of the VTR and the picture recording is performed with the television synchronized with the VTR, (3) a method in which the channels of the television are controlled on the VTR side by the wired control bus, thereby performing the timer picture recording, and so forth. With respect to the method (1), since the picture recording channel is fixed, only one channel can be subjected to the reserve of the picture recording. With respect to the method (2), the program reserve needs to be performed on the television side and the VTR side, respectively. Therefore, there arises the problem that the reserve operation takes a great deal of time, and also the malsetting readily occurs such that the reserved recording contents are different from each other. In addition, with respect to the method (3), the realization can be readily performed if the maker of the television is the same as that, of the VTR. In the case where the maker of the television is different from that of the VTR, however, there arises the problem that it is difficult to standardize the communication procedures between the different makers.